This invention relates to video services, for example, videoconferencing, video multimedia remote surveillance.
The videoconferencing market, that is face-to-face discussions by means of real time, bidirectional transmission of image and sounds across transmission media, is increasing. Most of the existing equipment to support the above application require relatively high bandwidth transmission links, which are usually point-to-point. More recently the technology to support videoconferencing has concentrated on providing dial-up services, and this has required the development of codecs of lower bandwidth and operating on single or multiple 64 (or 56) kbps transmission lines. In all instances, the codec equipment is positioned proximal to the actual end-user, such as being part of desk-top telephony equipment, permitting the analogue audio and video signals to be converted locally into digital signals for onward transmission across the telecommunications network. This however means that costly codec equipment is required for each subscriber (end-user).